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Dean Pritchard, QMI Agency

Feb 27, 2014

, Last Updated: 12:58 AM ET

WINNIPEG — A Manitoba man has been sentenced to four months in jail and his wife was fined $21,500 in a case animal welfare officials have called the worst incident of animal hoarding they have ever seen.

Judge Carena Roller also prohibited Peter and Judy Chernecki of Gull Lake from possessing animals for five years, with the exception of two cats.

"If I were permitted by the (Animal Control Act) to impose a lifetime ban, I would, so worried I am of recidivism," Roller said.

Animal protection officers were called to the couple's property in July 2010 and found 59 dogs living in a small, feces- and urine-soaked outbuilding. Five more neglected dogs were seized from a second smaller building.

Thirty-four of the dogs were eventually euthanized, either because of health reasons or because they were too aggressive.

Winnipeg Humane Society CEO Bill McDonald said the sentence is unprecedented in Manitoba and possibly Canada.